Lessons

Lesson Info

The Art of Posing Continued

this is a great image of kind of getting it all wrong with mom and the boys um the sun in the back is a little bit too far away from her the boy in the front is a little bit too low they kind of looked is connected in this image and then in this image just changing the way the posing is I put dad in the middle move the older son up on top of his shoulder and notice how this little guy here his shoulders are leaning this way and mom is coming up over dad shoulder leaning and I put her to this side why because of her hair right I put her on the other side and turn to face the other way her hair was kind of hiding her entire face so based on her hairstyle I turned her this way and put her on this side of dad shoulder and guess what you can see the triangles leading lines giada temple right so all of the elements we've been talking about for some for the last segment of posing and again we have this triangle triangle there's always have to be going point at the top can come down this way a...

nd their faces connected together all make a great triangle this is a really fun shoot that I have steve doesn't look very happy here because um this was uh we were doing a workshop so I just posed him where is on one of the things would notice about this particular image is ah the way that his knee is further out and his elbows leaning on his knee and his uh his left shoulder is the low shoulder right now his right shoulder is low shoulder now there is a couple of things about head tilts which are important to understand for a female and male subjects there is a masculine tilt and there's a feminine tilt now a female khun generally go in either direction she could be posed masculine or shaken be posed feminine but a guy cannot go in a feminine position kiss you have just look silly so if we're gonna create a line through the shoulder and create a low shoulder high shoulder a woman's head can go towards the high shoulder or the low shoulder but a man really is going to look pretty silly going to the high shoulder always say they look pretty and so if you tell a guy looks pretty his head's always go a little shoulder and so it's just one of those other little techniques when you might get a guy saying I really don't like the way I look in that picture and he doesn't know it's because he looks feminine because his head is tilted towards the high shoulder so there's a great example of steve's tilting his head towards the low shoulder and then adding in mom so what I did here with harper's I had her leaning on her hip leaning on his leg and steve is wrapping up around her now the nice part of this session is that we were just building on this spot it's what I love about this little gazebo area is well one we've got texture color depth direction of light and that the gazebo platform is actually are posing prop right so because we have the ground and the layer here the level of the gazebo here we have different heights for posing got her leaning in and now in that same exact spot we can photograph all for the children together with this does is it gives me it gives me the heights to change and make the oldest son higher put the oldest daughter lower and then be able to stack their bodies so that we can see everybody bodies are open to the camera faces air turned and so being able to use that that position as opposing stool really actually helps and then here just adding on to that we add mom and daddy so mom lied and get behind the kids threw throw yourself right bind I'm sorry forgot the kids names but um just throw your knees in there and then dad lean in and I'm always trying to get dad to hold a hand here right so this way it brings everybody together so this just just doing family right in the spot I love this image same spot totally different setup this is going back to the original set up we had with dad sitting as the base mom on the floor and what did I do with this the youngest daughter here and put her in front of mom why because she's the smallest person right she's a smallest person she's gonna hide mom I put the oldest daughter here in the middle leaning forward jackson I remember his name is leaning over his sister and then the older son here we can see but by turning the body's open to the camera that they each have their own space in the image so nobody is more important than anyone else in the picture so I love this picture too because this is like again this is like an image mom loves because what her kids were all leading and together hugging onto each other and it's just a fun fun grouping this is the same group of kids and a standing pose so this is seating sitting on the ground everybody's leading in jackson's leaning on his sister all the heads were together and this is just a nice standing pose but you can see all their bodies open to the camera the youngest daughter is actually standing on that little bit of a platform so I can get her up a little bit higher they all have a nice face for me as a portrait photographer I prefer this picture all right that was me I love squeezy huggy leaning on each other I'm one of the things that we really didn't talk about earlier which this picture shows a good example of is when we're photographing people we want to make sure that all of the faces are as close to the same plane as possible so even though the oldest brother is behind them I have him leaning over so much so that their faces are pretty much on the same plane and what that does is it gives everybody equal sizing it meat makes everybody equally is important because if he was too far back he would appear small and disconnected and also because I like to shoot at wider apertures I like to make sure that those noses are almost all in the same piece of glass when you're photographing a group of people want you just imagine there's a sheet of glass in front of them and your job is to get all the noses touching that sheet of glass how are you gonna lean those bodies over how you gonna get all the noses touching the glass so that all the faces of same size and everybody's and focus you can still shoot this image at three five to a few want to as long as those faces are so close the same plane you can get away with it if you're not one hundred percent comfortable okay maybe goto four five but I don't think my camera ever goes higher than like four five six unless we're talking about a super big group but in this case we're not again here if you imagine a piece of last year all their faces are on the same plane is really important now this is a great example of totally would not to do right so one of my students in this particular workshop pose this group and it was a great start right so I see where they're going they're trying to create triangles but what happened was that the direction wasn't wasn't clear enough to have this sister leaning up and between the mom and the younger sister there's this weird space between mom and dad if you notice throughout my portrait I always try to get people connected leaning into each other we're here this for me creates a disconnect mom and dad's back or to each other kind of splits the family it's not particularly my favorite pose so I changed it to this same location same people but check out what I did here start my triangle come all the way up and I end here I'm purposely putting those knees up to create that triangular feel which you know this was a bit start we've got it on one side but not the other look at how it's just about the same location same group of people on by literally just puzzling their bodies together differently we've created completely different pose people are way more connected out dad is strong he's the center of the image is not kind of slumped over in that position and the youngest sister is here older brothers leaning over and mom looks good and she's a thin mom but she's cut in half but because of her family that makes sense this is such a great example of like and whoa was that too much okay good does that do that help make sense you guys awesome yeah what I want to do is a little bit more posing demos with you guys so that you can feel comfortable doing it so I'm actually gonna have aaron pose me right so that you can see what it's like to communicate with me and talk to me and have me pose so what would you have me do um okay well never say um right okay let's go let's yeah let's make it happen all right start with um separating your feet a little bit and turn one toe out then go ahead and put your thumbs into your pockets just on the side there um bump your hips back a little bit I wanted to feel more confident okay uh oni girl like right now for all those hands in your pants pocket I know it's very uncomfortable it's so uncomfortably on the spot but the key thing is this teacher's u so much about how to gain that confidence how to really direct people okay okay yeah go ahead and stick your hands in your pants pockets your thumb there perfect just your thumb actually great thank you sorry then yeah I just gotta bump your hips back a little bit can you do that um kind of popping back a little bit eh okay and I'm kind of papa hip out to the side maybe a little bit and um si hai so hard right it's so difficult okay so uh christina when have you come up right and then we'll switch places okay so and I don't need that I get this so you're in control right so christine it's perfect I want you to separate your feet and watch my hands go out right separate your feet and then you're going to turn that left left right toe out perfect and they wouldn't want you to do is swing your hips to one side see swing like it makes a little more sense swing your hips to one side and that's it and then I want you to bring your hands to the to the hip crease right so your hands all the way here well out of this is a good example of like when you say bring your hands to your waist most people bring it all the way up here right but we really want his hands at your hips because otherwise we have this like really sharp line in the elbows and it's almost too much is almost like the angry stands where his hands to the hips and I actually say go ahead and push your fingers into the hip flexor right there you can feel that hip right right where your side bends right there perfect and then lean this way just little bit press I hit back give me a little attitude there you go see give me a little accident and she's doing exactly what I do there's no uh there's no waiting there was like hey let's say and I'm talking I die with her which is the most critical thing you can do and smiling at her if you're not confident she's not gonna be confident you got to just own it that's it perfect even if she looks horrible what you dont you look great even if she looks hard like yeah exactly that's perfect and then boom let's shoot it so then turn to the side just a little bit and then dip your shoulder towards me and then swing back just a little bit see how we just narrowed her body down just a little bit swing back to me a little bit more and then lean forward towards me look how we just send out her entire body I know it's a little hard to see but from right here we just thinned out her entire body I would shoot this from a high camera angle elongating her neck fitting her out it was so many tiny little tricks that you khun dio that will make it easier for you to direct your clients good at least you're going to be the next one so I want you to direct aaron I'd like you to stand with your feet apart and angle your toe out to the side a little bit now poppier thumbs in your pockets that's great body she showing up with good job okay now I would like you to and it turn your head a little bit this way just a little your head a little bit which way uh good she showing her with her own head but you're right yeah now I want you to just lean forward a little bit and pop your hips towards the back and then kind of give it just a little bit of that's awesome right kind of give me a little like okay what does that mean right so lena should shoulder forward towards and pop that hit back that's it and then when you want to turn someone's face just a little bit so I want you to turn your face with me just a little bit right here follow my finger and down just a little bit up just a little bit if you convey direct her face with your finger because a lot of time you say turn your head a little bit in there like this all the way right or you know get a head till so little it's like you have a string attached to her nose right it's like okay turner knows with me just a little bit this way till your head with me that way just a little bit now just to drop me towards me all the way I see it there you go big right see so it's it's a rhythm right it's like we're like we're doing this like posing dance together right how does that feel good all right your turn to direct yeah uh okay you direct lisa okay now have you have you taken a thought have you analyzed her face her body we thought about where she'll look past what she should do I would say that I'm going to shoot into this side of her face uh probably tilted just a little bit so not the profile the two thirds is very view face right sir just two thirds of your face and so right at the heart of the ice the eyelash on de ce o let's go ahead and have you follow me you're gonna turn to the side you're gonna lean forward go ahead and put your hands in your hip fleischer's so down just a little bit where they've been and they let me stop you right there because what happened or feet she's no bass no base so start with the feet ok yeah so let's go ahead and start over so you see you see how like you got to start from the bottom where you yeah okay so we're gonna go ahead and have you spread your feet okay so that's one of the terms I really dislike spread no good thing back severing your feet has that great your feet is a good thing you didn't say legs yes okay yeah sudden really yeah I heard it a million times like you can't say that so we're gonna have you separate your fears you know they were going to bring your left foot forward and I'm gonna have you lean forward and you're going to kick your back hip out or roll your back hip about lean your shoulder down just a little bit how do you feel right now a little bit awkward yeah don't you normally feel awkward um way changing yeah yes and no but you're like eyeing her body up and now I want you to like talk to her eyes so so lisa separate your feet out just a little bit for me that's it and turn your right your left toe out that's it and separate just little bit more so have a nice stance and bring your foot back further toward your body here you go and and just relax she get out there you go and now I want you to just drop your left shoulder there you go lean towards me a little bit pressure hips back its and chin down just to drop till your head this way just a little bit in the portrait's right up here okay I feel a little bit better because I was I was communicating with you the whole time right you're looking at my eyes right so that's the key thing is a communication skill that's all it is really I know it seems like proposing is so hard it's communication and and it's feeling totally comfortable talking to anybody really you have to be like huh you really especially dads dads are the worst right when you're dealing with opposing men so same thing but it gives you a sense of you know what it feels like to pull with somebody and be on the other side okay so I'm gonna have you sit in the chair is awesome and that's what most people do when they send a cherry so most people will sit in the chair and chairs or a great opposing prop chairs are an amazing posing proper armchairs stools right so but the way that people will generally start to look heavier when they sit in the chairs when they said all the way back into the chair so if I haven't lean all the way up come all the way to the edge of your chair that's it and then you're gonna lift up nice and tall and let your feet go out to the side you can almost cross one foot over the other cia we narrowed our body already by bringing her up closer to the edge of the chair she now has no choice but to lift up with a nice strong posture and then what we're going to do is I'm gonna have you lean into your knees just little bit put both hands on your feet that's it and then dropped this shoulder just a little bit lean towards me this way just a little bit and turn your face this drop shot is right here right on the camera and so she was awesome right now if we want we can let this arm come out onto the edge of the chair just little bit and see what we did it for her we just gave her waist right so instead of blocking up her body with her elbows tight her body we opened up her body by moving her elbow we still have a tilting her shoulder now we can even come down a little bit more till you have a street just little bit attorney faces and now she's like from here in a really pretty two thirds view of the face and I would shoot this from a nice high camera angle because you know I'm close up person but by by swinging the feed out to the side we've created a curve on her body there's motion in there and by moving her head in one direction by opening up the elbow we've created space in her body that makes sense now how would we add someone to this for which side from ann this side over here I'm her left site on her left side ok so let's try that sophie at somebody over here I got this this armed it on the other side what yeah kids were puzzle piecing were puzzling right we're piecing the puzzle together so if I wanted to make sure that my head was gonna come over her shoulder and I was gonna be able to get in close to her my job would be able to get close to her temple in our noses would be on the same piece of glass I'd probably be in here somewhere because she's you know my sister would be squeezing and leaning in together right now we could put another person on this side of the tall enough to lean up over and in we're doing a close up shot you know we could we could really have somebody leaning in over the shoulder this would be a little bit of a harder pose but I probably have her come back to center a little bit more and then leaning over so the thing is most people will say here on the edge and then just stay here but so far I am from her so it's a lift up and lean over and squeeze in no matter what happens lift up lean in and squeeze together fix everything right so no joke because what you can't help it but when you say to something squeeze in you can't help them like people just smile so when you feel like it's failing and it's not working you know what hey let's lean up leaning together squeeze all right easy easy enough to do right so we could use now um lisa probably prefer to be behind me in a portrait of my correct okay and if I was posing this portrait I would put her behind me okay so I'm gonna have her come to the arm of the chair and I'm gonna sit in the front we're gonna watch what happens to her body so this will be interesting because I can't see what I'm doing but I'm gonna go this way so I'm leaning this way and you're gonna come to the arm here and now you're gonna lift up lean nice and tall over me and lean as close to me as you can get what happened to her body she cut her in half right she's tall she and worse remember I'm a close up girls who are appear nice high camera angle and she's now smaller and because she's a little bit behind me she's even more small even more that's great english she's smaller and so when you're puzzling pieces together you absolutely have to look a body size who is going to be smallest who was goingto go in the front who's goingto be puzzled in the back and let's face it most women are very aware of their own size if not they're over where or they think they're actually bigger than they are so most of my life put me in the back right on my lying come on let's just let's just be honest because we're working with people here you have to be honest so most people would want to be in the front uh want to be in the back so that's the way we would put those two people together so I'm gonna have aaron come in and we'll do another seated pose with her so let's do that let's do that together so I can actually see what it looks like right so perfect you khun lean forward towards me a little bit lisa and then aaron you can put your arm right up on the arm of this the arm of the chair and what I want you to do is turn your body towards me a little bit so open up your body all the way and let that elbow come out further keep going so what was gonna come all the way right there and now you're gonna lift back a little bit you know scoot back on that chair just little bit and now lean over her there you go see the difference that made sometimes when the bodies are too close together you can't actually mean them together so if you want to really bring the bodies you want to bring faces together you have to move the bodies apart that makes sense a lot of times we would get nice and close to people and you can't get the heads in because the bodies are too close together it's now your body's air separate a little bit more her erin's body opened up a little bit more we actually brought her shoulder out which opened her up and gave lisa a little bit more space now you together just a little bit oh look how sweet that is right that she's in a full face she's in two thirds face can you see it that's awesome that's a beautiful portrait on an armchair and look with that background should we should take that picture good okay so now we want to add let's say we want to add ah younger sister and if I really want to I can come right in here right so if I want to on my I come this way creating a little triangle now you put that arm behind my shoulder and we could lean in and all three of us would be in and I could get in nice and close like this so we have a triangle at least there's a diagonal line somewhere in here isn't there I can't it's so hard when you're actually in the it's so hard when you're in the post to like see it but I could actually have you come right here and do the same thing for me and this is seriously all about just puzzling bodies together right I'm gonna have you back up just a little bit more and slide away from the chair just little bit see how we along eating her body a little bit more by sliding her way and giving her more of a nascar and now we so hold on to your other sister and your hands put your hands together that's it it's almost a little bit too much hands right because I'll tell you why because your wrist looks broken so I will bring it back just a little bit or bring it down here and then here and then you just leave that there now lean and all the way squeezed together right that's pretty good that's pretty good for one chair and three girls you guys are cute beautiful awesome okay so now really if I wanted teo I could really like have some fun with this because there's going to be a close up right so if I was um like a little kid or something I could come right in here and lean and right here how's that doing good so see how it puzzling bodies together and on this chair now remember this is like it's right in here so it's all of our faces together we are one cute group of people woke okay now everybody lean up lift up from the senator's fine and squeeze together see totally totally works all right here we go you guys can take a break all right seriously the art of posing is all about making people look good all about moving the bodies away from each other even we're doing stand up for full length poses if bodies are too close together you can never get them leaning over so always make sure there's a little bit of a separation in the body's people are backed up a little bit leaning over shoulders lifting up right so what are the top three posing tips that you're gonna take with you that you never ever want to forget uh be confident confidence you gotta own it like you're on fire like you know because why are people coming in you you're the expert and if you're confident and you feel good they're going to feel good and then there they smile they lift up there there everything you do is a reflection if your client's not comfortable it's because you're not comfortable everything is a mirror so your total reflection of what your clients are giving you so if you if they're like I don't know it's just going to turn out okay it's because you're not confident about it so what do you eric take home from just this little posing devil um starting from the bass and I think that yeah yeah sorry bass and the bass khun b triangular on the bottom it could be one foot forward one foot back but everything begins from the base otherwise we have no no place to move the body you know if you ever see people dance like this no one dances because everyone's like because you could move from here right see I said we'd get dancing in here I knew we would I knew it but you know it's it's true like they're everything starts from the feet up even even if you're sitting and doing us sitting poles you know because you've got to start from the bottom which is here and lift up so I'm leaning into my knee right okay so starting from the bottom being really specific with your directions and having them mirror what you're doing okay my battery my pack is sliding wow okay I was like can you still hear me I'm sorry I'm there hi guys okay apparently it wasn't completely afflicted we're good now okay whoa what is going on okay I'm sorry lisa I said be really specific and have them your your action yeah turn your head a little bit what does that mean turn your head with me just that much go with me right so yeah because at this point once we're getting to this point that's the final step of the posing process right that's where we're refining the last minute thing the beginning is putting it all together puzzling the pieces getting him all fit in and everybody looking good and then the last pieces that final is the face term correctly is it a two third views in full view it's a lift up and lean in right so aaron you're gonna pose these two together right here it's so uncomfortable and then that's why I'm making you do it uh you guys at home I hope you all grab somebody from your neighborhood and are using a pole hope using cherry now and but go ahead yeah lisa let's start with you in the chair I think um hey dad I think come right towards the edge of the chair there you go sit right on the edge perfect you want toe to swing your feet out just a little bit to the side there ico perfect you wanna put your arm up on the side of the chair and lean there you go beautiful and christine if you wantto come in sit on the edge there kind of behind her there you go now leaning close behind her maybe wrap your arm around there you go lena nice and close and um can you kind of bring your jaw to her temple a little bit perfect a little pretty good because that helped a lot of issues right you draw to the temple this is good okay for the most part cristina really young confidence yeah right I mean okay so here's here's how we're gonna get this that's okay that's okay here's how we're gonna get least lean more towards swing your feet the other direction okay right now look what happens now lean out to this arm of the chair see what we just did now we created her leaning this way now christine you can twist towards me a little bit more so sitting more on your hip that's it and back away from her just to drop and lose that are in the back there you go and then from here bring your hand her elbow now twist into me a little bit more now lift up and lean over her shoulder now come together a little bit should you feel less come less uncomfortable and you did before c because her feet were going this way she couldn't lean that way right okay so it's kind of odd but like her legs all go one direction and upper body will go the other direction so that she can actually go ahead and put your feet back the other way because really totally uncomfortable right now lean on that arm of the chair see now if you go in this direction she can lean that way so if you want the subject's leading this way sitting down their feet have to go the opposite direction okay pretty cool huh yeah I know okay all right so now we're gonna have umm I mean at least suppose the two of you were using that little stool that we have there instead of the chair is this fun huh so lisa you're going to be in charge of christine and aaron on my stool okay yeah so christine I'll have you sit on the stool and let's put your okay so we're posing both of them on the stool together okay so aaron come on over okay so I want you to pre plan this who's gonna go where actually I'm going to switch you guys okay aaron you'll be in the front okay um aaron I'd like you to put your feet to your left okay and um christine I'd like you to come back behind aaron and let's have you put um let's have you put your right arm on aaron shoulder and I'd like you to step a little bit further behind the stool with your with your leg so you're yeah there you go perfect how uncomfortable you guys right now okay I know this is painful okay erin turn back towards me the way you were and then go ahead and prop your heel up on that's it and then I want you to lean into that a little bit watch what happens to this shoulder when she leans and second drop this shoulder a little bit more now look what happened uh christine has a space to lean over her so you're actually gonna lean a little bit more keep dipping that arm that's it I know she's a tire of retirement or so like I got to put my hand right up there right so um but this is perfect so I actually want her to lean a little bit deeper and you're going to be and I'm gonna show you this right so stand over here so you can see me or stand right there so you want your feet to be slightly separated and you want a little separation between the bodies and then you're gonna lift up so I'm gonna call her body in half and because I'm giving her a little bit of space in our room to lean in and if she puts her hand here they get closer together you put your hand here it's kind of awkward and it creates like this sharp curving your elbow or is here you'll get a little bit closer so you're not that much taller than me so right now back your body away just a little bit and now lean over nicely get your face in nice and close see the difference yeah right it looks good so we've got to get a lean in the shoulder and at least one person's that we have that space ad in someone else over it but you did the right thing by changing their bodies right so that's why it's so important why there's only three of us right so we're like limited in the amount of bodies that we impose but tomorrow I have a family of nine children were going like every combination imaginable so that's gonna be a lot of fun but this is all conceptualizing powell used to have to start thinking about bodies and putting them together if we had left christine on the stool that would not have been the place for her when we sit where we sit her she she would get like just from beyond the chairs we need her to lift up and lean in which narrows out leans down her body does that make sense all right awesome okay go ahead and take a break all right do you have any questions wei have a ton of doctor is this a good time yeah a whole bunch of them room all right how does that feel I know I'm sorry I'm going back and forth but seriously like how did that feel somebody when you actually get there on your you're on the spot and everyone's looking at you you kind of everything sort of flight that you're right and that's why before we get to the questions I'm sorry that's why it's so critical to like instantly when you meet people you kind of sort sort of analysing bodies we're gonna put this person if I was opposed them which angle their face do I think would work best would they be better sitting standing where they better behind someone in front of somebody like all of a sudden you start to see bodies as pieces of puzzles and you just start learning how to put them together no matter where you are you could have a chair you can have a stool you cover the floor it doesn't really matter you can use anything that's available to you so long as you know put the pieces together it's practice practice practice yeah great neo go grab people find people practice okay questions all right son full is asking you talked about the difference and tilting the head for male and female can you talk about the other differences imposing men hosing men probably a lot more simple imposing women so I mean men are pretty fairly easy if a man has kind of like a belly like we talked about earlier you would pose him straight to the camera maybe just let the thumbs rest in the pocket give a little bit of space between the waste so he looks like as a waste and and he can just lead it and a man can actually have a little bit of a straight line if you want you know that the rules opposing are there for a reason but they're also meant to be broken right as long as you break him with purpose and you know what you're doing when you break the rule so for here if we leave him forward presses hips back he's going to look a little bit thinner we can have him just dip one shoulder and have his head leaning towards low shoulder we can have a man sit in a stool bringing up one leg if we have ah prop to put a foot up on we can have him just lied in just like that and that automatically creates a lion in the shoulder and that that looks masculine for men uh for a man you know like here steve is almost straight to the camera um and you know the boys are too but it's just there's not as much finesse with the man they can lean up on a wall sitting in an armchair like men it was sitting in a chair can actually look really good like this where you know some women can pull it off depending on the outfit not so much making one knee lower or higher than the other so you can lean in this way so a man can look a little bit more aggressive this way whereas a woman wants to look a little softer this way if you pay if you pose a man like this he looked pretty feminine right so that's why it could actually lead a more forward so there's lots of different things we could do with men I feel like a man right now okay all right well yeah well while you're there with so much authority yes um when posing groups do you start with the subjects in the back or the friend do you start with the oldest tallest subjects first how do you do that it depends really I start with what I think the base should be s o yeah we can sometimes start with the smallest and build on that and then fit the pieces in the back but yeah like here I probably put the you know the youngest the kids in the front then I placed the youngest on her sister's lab and then I had dad come in the behind so probably I would work front to back in most cases that's you know steps I would take front to back so I'm building building building go from there our next question is from sam cocks in loveland colorado hi sam do some clients not get your verbal follow me instructions if so what's your fallback way of getting two good poses that's awesome yeah there's tons of times that it so it's usually dad writes usually men who don't know I'm not being like anyway it's just usually dad that doesn't get the instruction or is overly uncomfortable and kind of can't get it and occasionally I just have to walk up to him and shake his shoulders and go it's okay relax I just want you to drop the shoulder so sometimes I have to just go and touch them and you touch her shoulder and just relax him a little bit or you know have him step out like I did earlier and you step out you can see what I'm doing because I can conceptualize where I want you back there and I'm like okay stand back here and you get here and you're like okay now well where I right but if I say okay I want the right foot here left what's going back here body's going to be behind just a little bit and lean up from here so sometimes actually just moving in and showing them is the best way and then I just tease them until they laugh and they you know relax a little bit because you know men are mean women are uncomfortable in front of camera but men are to you know really it's it's a scary thing to be on this side of the camera yeah all right thank you another question johanna sophia what if the people you are posing are pretty much all the same size and they all want to look thinner yeah that's a good but well who has the checkbook no I'm just kidding who's paying for this portrait yeah we can't make everyone look thinner there was no doubt about it you can use each of the bodies to cut off other pieces of other people's bodies when you're posing them together and using a high camera angle would probably be one of the most efficient ways to get that done as well um you know it's interesting most people know where they're at in life you know and they accept that and I'm never going to make somebody who is two hundred pounds look like one hundred twenty pounds I can't do that but I can make you look as good as I can for that whatever body type you are in that moment um you know by elongating the body standing up poses leaning and pressing hips back pulling bodies over shoulders so it does get a little bit more complicated but for me portrait's about the face and so if I need teo I'll do more close ups in that scenario where I can get higher I can just get faces together and then it's just all about expression in the face and I've really minimized most of things people don't like about themselves that answer that question yeah this is so fun thank you it is like the best part oh good it's such great questions from our internet all right a couple questions on the same vein one from w cooper s when shooting families my biggest problem is running out of poses how do you overcome the a few good pose is now at issue and followed by b and photography does michele have posing charts charts ha like that I take with me no I don't have opposing chart because it's really based on the body types that are in front of you when you can have a two year old you can have a six year old you can eighty two year old many really every family is different you really never encountered two families of all the same so it's a matter of just identifying the body types if you have elderly in your group how are they how mobile out are they do we need a chair for them to sit in sometimes elderly aren't that mobile so we have to sit them and you know they're not going to sit up straight because maybe they have you know bad posture and you know get past a certain point and there's only so much you khun dio um but yeah as faras a chart and again I think there's no riel ah hard and fast rules the thing is to see triangles two separate bodies to stack heads over shoulders right so it's more of the concept than a pose a pose be post c right because every family is different I mean generally have that whole little triangle that I do and if you can add to it that's the key thing can you add to it start looking at your posing book can I add to that can I put another person up there can I add another person over the shoulder how does that work right so if you can add on to it if you can continue to make that pose grow that's that's really important and you can change opposed by changing the the direction of the camera so I could be here in this pose but you come over here and now it's a slightly different pose to come over my shoulder I'm now on a back profile so I could be here and being three different poses just because of tiger changes the camera angle right and the height you know you could shoot from down below I could do like this like barbra streisand from nineteen seventies look you know I'm talking about you know that fortune I'm talking about or you can come up from a cot hi camera angle and could do more of a glamour shot lighting will dictate changing that up a cz well no for popping a reflector and open up the eyes if we were to subtract ihe ve that there's so many different things like one poses never just one post one pose should always be at least three poses this angle that angle on the angle over here s o I'm not quite sure if that makes sense in in terms of you know how many different poses can you do but you should be able to do as many different poses as possible using the concept of creating shapes triangles heads in the right place body sizes you khun do floor posing standing posing chair posing so you can do so many different things with this family we did so many different things in this location from standing too sitting to use in the gazebo so I have the tools it's like you know can you only build a certain style house with a set of tools should be able to build any kind of house you want is long as you have the tools hope that makes sense we've had a few questions about managing kind of overenthusiastic models most most recently yeah our spree how do you manage that over the zs stick model you know the one who thinks they know it all or is trying to be helpful within strikes bad poses um okay so I'll do this okay we'll do it here I'll make you I'll make a deal you do it my way first and then we'll do it your way fair enough okay fair not because we have kids do that too you know kids get overly enthusiastic as well like hey hey miss michelle can't do like this and the mic okay you can absolutely do that and that's fun but let's do what I need to do first and then we can do what you want to do so yeah with models like that or people who are just kind of over posey for the camera just tell him to relax and the more you talk to people the more they forget their own camera more that they relax and then you know okay drop that shoulder just a little turn your face with me that way just a little bit so I think it's it's really an interaction thing and if you know you really have those control freak people well can we shoot over here we'll get there promise you wil I love your ideas let me do this first okay me now you later is that all right all right so I'm gonna move this chair out just a little bit plans I'm gonna just demonstrate a couple ways in which we can have uh women pose there's a couple of different things that we can do usually been oppose ah woman on the floor I'm gonna have her sit on her hip and I'll show you why because if you have somebody sit on the floor like this and her body is gonna look a little bit wider if I roll her onto her hip of instantly thinned out her entire hip and now I have a place to create a triangle see pretty easy I can dip my shoulder this way I can go this way a little bit but by thinning this part of the body out I also now have a place for a little kid right so there's a great spot for mom little kid's legs hanging over little kids sitting right here mom's here and then it's really easy to add dad and right back here it's easy to add another kid here and there's a spot right here for another kid so I have just created a puzzle right here I'm the base of the puzzle I've got room for kids room for a kid room for kid room for dad room for somebody else right I mean if you start to see it think of like where you would put people on a pose you could just look at me here imagine okay where would I put it can put someone over this shoulder someone over this shoulder someone leaning and here I mean so many different things that you can do that's one way she can also bring her legs this way we're going to create that triangle with somebody else's legs going out the same way so leaning a child and here leaning up on mom with their feet going out the other way we now have a triangle now we have the little kid right here leaning on mom that's one way of putting another person right in this spot over my shoulder here is another one will bring another person right in here there's another person another child to be leaning on my leg right here how many people can you build into that portrait and you've never moved mom right so there's two easy ways to do it so aaron I'm gonna have you come up and we'll just demonstrate a couple things how fun is that so that's what I don't even need the people here too to have you visualize where you can start puzzling people like it really started thinking in terms of all right where were we look right there and how would oppose him how would I create that triangle how would I put that face that that way okay so have a seat on your left hip right perfect now I want you to roll all the way on here um I I'm good okay so roll all the way on to your seat see how much local who happened to her right cause she's right now she's just all hip and glue right so if you roll back over onto your hip look how we've totally thinned out her body it's a really key thing that you just tell mom if you sit this way you'll look thinner shell like hang upside down if you tell her to no joke right I'm not kidding so let let your right foot comes up come up and let your hand see now we created triangle now look what we did to her waist back there totally gave her waist now if I'm in her family and um I want to just jump in here as a sister I've got one knee here when he behind her and now I'm gonna lift up and lean and giada temple who image right here if I am a little kid I can come right in here my legs with well a lien on my mom just like this boom giada temple see so easy because long as you understand how to start puzzling and moving bodies together that's the key thing she'd put a smaller person here you put somebody a little bit bigger behind why because that cuts to the body in half so now we have could you come on over for me because I thought I told you I was going to use you re right here so she's going to go in this bar here I just create let's just create a family portrait of sisters right here so you're gonna be on your left hip yep that's it and let your legs swing back a little bit more this way and then you're gonna lean on her thigh right in there going together that's it lee that and then I come back up in here and I'm always been here we've got a triangle we look good okay so um lisa you're gonna come right over here actually so you're gonna go back here and I'm gonna come right here so okay let this hand go and then I can come in this way right lean on my sister okay and then christine you're gonna come right over here needs right behind me is this great knees right in their lean over my shoulder squeeze together already leading in lift up leaning well how do we look that poor father way had a camera around here somewhere so good I see how like knowing where the bodies go and had oppose um put all that wow that looks pretty good can you go back with what say I want that leave that a lean over shoulder squeeze together faces damn I'm good that is awesome so fun I take a break so really I wanted to start conceptualizing puzzle pieces body size is where can you fit people in opening up the bodies using shoulders to stack heads turning faces that you can see two thirds view a full face view how are you going to direct people have confidence walk in there like okay guys here's what we're going to do lisa you're going to come sit on the floor christine you gonna lean right over her erin you're going to be on your left hip leading all the way on your sister you've got to make it so yeah when you sit there people just feel good they're ready to go it's so posing it's so much fun and you know what the really the fun part is making people look good that's what we do we make people look good that's why people hire professional photographers you know and here's a key thing mom save me all time I hate the way I look in pictures well of course you do because you took a picture and an iphone with did not agree lens and you're slumping over and the background is awful and it's bad light and yeah you know so when mom's come in sometimes and like I just hate the way looking pictures I never liked away looking pictures that's that's the number one nerve wracking things mom say to me and we're gonna get into that after the break but how do we deal with well you know I never liked the way looking pictures and I always say when was the last time you were photographed by a professional photographer somebody who understands how to make you look good how to thin the body someone who understands the correct use of lenses someone understands camera height and they're like huh you know you know somebody who understands how to get you to lift up clean in and look amazing that's my job that's what I do know one like snapshots no one right there for anybody here you like I know you like snapshots of yourself no I know well actually I don't mind cause I don't have a lift up and lean it sony everyone in my world like this really kind of comical now but when you know friends and family are together and we know we're in pictures together is like okay lift up leaning and every family group he sees like everybody's like it's pretty funny so for the rest of your life you know lift up lean into the camera it's going to thin out the body make you look good it's gonna be fun tomorrow I cannot wait for a family of nine children I'm not gonna lie I'm a little frightened I am but it's gonna be a lot of fun were the largest group you've ever posed uh yeah no extended family groups um we'll probably take a look at them on uh wednesday but it was about twenty seven people seventeen grandchildren grandparent's great grandmother all the kids that was a whole lot of fun yeah it is a huge I get definitely required wine when I was done because you know seventeen kids raging from six months to eighteen so I mean you know and they were like different sub families of the big group and so we did each of the kids by themselves each of the children with their family individually mom the mom with all of her children and then grandma with all her grandchildren and our great grandchildren like it was just incredible and actually went out to their house and shot it definitely show you that wednesday it'll be fun look at it's definitely a good one so and you have to be in command for that you have seventeen kids like hey photographer you can be the next picture you know gotta own on the field like you're the coach your football coach